


Senas Auksa Altorius

by Pokytoad



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Religion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-12 07:51:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9063091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pokytoad/pseuds/Pokytoad
Summary: Don't you know, that without religion I am blind?





	

**Author's Note:**

> In which Lithuania doesn't know what he believes in anymore (we all know he's the most confused Christian of all)

A gentle sway of a rocking chair.

A flutter of pages.

A quiet murmuring in a tongue old and handsome, echoing the throes of time itself.

Silence.

A shift of clothing.

A sigh.

And the murmurs began once more, nearly drowned out by the rattling window panes.

In the dim firelight of the stove, Lithuania sat in his worn rocking chair, reading a beaten book of prayers published in his native language.

Latvia tucked his thin quilt tighter around his chin and watched Lithuania through bleary eyes.

Left unattended, the meagre heat of the hearth began to retreat into itself as the squalling, frigid gale battered about just beyond the faded floral wallpaper.

The amber rosary was tangled in his long, tapered fingers.

Estonia was not to be found; usually he was reading on his cot, waiting for Lithuania to come upstairs - which he often never did.

After some time, Lithuania crossed himself and slowly, reluctantly, stood to prepare for bed. Latvia saw him tenderly rubbing at the small of his back as he shuffled through a nearby crate.

"Eduard hasn't come back from the study yet."

Latvia turned away as Lithuania removed his sweater, shirt and trousers, sliding into his nightclothes, staring at the dancing shadows on the ceiling.

He _felt_ his lips tilt tiredly in response to Latvia's prompt.

"Eduard is fine, Lat. he needs to file expense reports."

With another sad, tired smile, Lithuania returned to his prayer book and held it reverently, squinting in the strained light of the stove.

His eyes were getting worse, but he would never admit it.

"Would you like me to recite a prayer to you?"

"Yes, please."

Raivis liked when he read prayers aloud, for he took care to transpose each line into Latvian, the words slow and thick on his tongue.

" _Dear God,_

_I cannot describe in words_

_The misery I feel._

_But you know._

_Please enter my heart_

_Transform my thoughts_

_Make straight my way_

_And set me free._

_Thank you, God_."

"Amen." Latvia closed his eyes and sighed, throat tightening.

"God will deliver us from this place." Lithuania murmured, convicted.

"God has forsaken us here." Raivis had to struggle not to spit out the words.

Shaking his head firmly, Toris denied his accusations.

"God instills his power with the free will of man."

"You know nothing of free will."

"And yet God-"

"Which _g_ _od_ , Toris?"

The words left his lips too fast, too clipped, and Latvia regretted every one of them.

Because he couldn't take away the only thing Lithuania had left.

Because he remembered a time when Lithuania stood agape in Catholic cathedrals, but refused to kneel before the altar and take communion with Poland, twisting the Romuva that circled his finger in a ring of white, ribbed ivory.

Nostrils flaring, Toris hastened on with verse, and Raivis didn't stop him.

_There's nothing left, nothing -_

"'So do not fear, for I am with you... I will strengthen and help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.'"*

The same words that he had been repeating, over and over, for decades.

_It was all he had left._

The same scriptures, the same comforting promises.

The empty descanters of a dying man. 

**Author's Note:**

> *Isaiah 41:10
> 
> (I know this one is rough please love me anyway)


End file.
